Producer Profiles

With 500 acres of dallisgrass, bermudagrass, fescue and johnsongrass, David and Lisa Long will take one to four cuttings a year and put up 650 to 700 round bales in Waldron, Arkansas. If he had a market to sell the hay to, it still wouldn’t provide enough to make a living, but additional land isn’t as available as it once was. Long knew something at Peaceful Valley Farms had to change.

A 4-H project that got out of hand. That’s what Tommy Mead of Mead Cattle Enterprises says about his passion for the Hereford breed.

What makes a man who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area choose the life of a cattleman in eastern Oregon? A passion for the beef industry and a knack for the business to make it all work.

It’s what they call “10-40” country; there are varying stories depending on who’s telling it but, essentially, a cow has to have a mouth 10 feet wide and run 40 miles an hour to get enough feed.

Going back to the family farm may be a dream for some, but that doesn’t make it a reality.

When Sally, Drake and Corbin Yon decided to return to their family’s reputable seedstock and row-crop business in Ridge Spring, South Carolina, the legwork had already been done.

Sally: We are all working on the same farm, but we don’t really see a lot of each other. Even though the meetings take longer than needed some days, they are good because they help everyone know what’s going on.